Page 41 of Knot the Alphas' Feral Omega

Relief flooded me, so intense that I nearly collapsed from it, and I growled softly and encouragingly as I pressed along the bond again. She returned my emotional touch, then gently pulled away, whining.

I let her go this time, and she looked up at me, her eyes big and dark and a little scared, and the humanity hadn’t been so strong in them since I first saw her here.

I could feel her fear and her hurt. I could feel the amount of pain she was in from the unrealized bond resulting from Oliver’s rejection. Bond Rejection Syndrome was no joke, and I knew it would take a long time before Lilah was able to forgive him—to forgiveus—for putting her through this.

But first, she needed to shift.

I could feel her magic close to the surface, her human form straining and begging for me, and I took a risk. I shifted back into my human form and gently wrapped my arms around Lilah’s wolf body.

“It’s okay, baby,” I said softly. I pressed my lips to her ear, the warmth of her fur against my skin tickling as I shifted closer. My cock twitched and started to stiffen between my legs at the contact, the scent of her in my nose, but I ignored it, focusing on the current moment. Lilah’s little wolf body was stiff in my arms, and she looked up at me with a combination of desire and mistrust. She wanted to believe me, and she wanted to trust me; I could see it in her eyes.

“That’s it, baby. Come on, you can do it,” I whispered. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing that the door to the room was still slightly open, and I could hear Oliver’s voice approaching from further down the hallway. Whatever he had dragged the director off to do, wherever they had gone so that Oliver could read Marcus the riot act, he had finished, and I wanted Lilah back in human form for him by the time he made it to the end of the hall. We had to work quickly.

I turned my full attention to Lilah, and she looked up at me with a combination of hope and mistrust, her tail wagging slightly as I leaned closer to her and brushed our noses together, mine human and hers animal.

“Come on, Lilah. I’m sure you have a lot you want to tell me,” I whispered, my voice fervent and intense as I spoke to her. I reached up and brushed my fingers along her neck, touching her and lending her my strength. “I’m sure you want to tell me what a bastard I am. I’m sure that you want to tell Oliver off, don’t you? You deserve to have your say. You deserve to tell us how much we hurt you. But baby, you can’t do that unless you shift. Come on, I need to be able to look you in the eye again. Can you do that for me?”

She gazed at me, her tail twitching, and I could see how badly she wanted to. She was right there, right...there...

Oliver’s voice grew louder, and I could tell he was alone this time, and then suddenly, between one blink and the next, Lilah’s entire body tensed and shifted.

The shift looked painful, as if it were unpracticed and unexpected, and by the time Lilah was in human form again, all quivering limbs and slim, scared girl, I had already made a mental note that I wanted to practice her shift with her more. I wasn’t sure how many times she had ever shifted when she was growing up, but it was clear that she needed to practice if she wanted to make it a habit—more of who she was rather than just letting it be something that she did.

She was a wolf, an omega, not just a girl. And I was going to make sure that she understood that.

“Killian?” Lilah’s voice was rough and scratchy with disuse, and my heart melted at the sound of it.

“Hey, baby,” I said softly. “I’m right here. I’m here for you.”

I wrapped my arms around her, and she sank into my touch, letting out a little sigh. Her body shook, and I reached blindly for the shirt I had pulled off, crumpled on the floor behind me.

“Here,” I said quietly. “Let’s get you dressed a little bit, yeah?”

My shirt dwarfed her when I pulled it up and over her head, and she seemed even smaller than she had when I first met her. She seemed infinitely more fragile now, and it took everything inside of me not to let out an awful growl and vow to harm anyone and everyone who had ever hurt her.

Oliver pushed open the door after pausing outside the room for a moment, probably listening to make sure that there wasn’t a bloodbath happening inside the room. I glanced over my shoulder, shielding Lilah from his view as I did so, and his eyes were wide as he took us in.

“It worked?” he asked softly.

I nodded. “It worked,” I confirmed roughly. “She’s back.”

Lilah’s entire body stiffened at the sound of Oliver’s voice, and I could feel her pain flooding the bond. It made me grimace, and when I glanced over my shoulder again, Oliver’s face was twisted in pain. He could feel it, too.

I was petty enough to feel a small sense of satisfaction that he was hurting just as much as Lila was. He deserved a little bit of pain after what he had put her through.

But that was a conversation for another day. After Lilah had recovered a little bit, she and Oliver could have it out and decide what kind of relationship the two of them would have now that we were bringing her into our pack.

Because now that I had her in my arms, there was no way in hell I would ever let her go again. Oliver was going to have to work through his feelings about her father in his own time.

Lilah was our omega. She wasmine, and I would slit his throat before I let him reject her again.

20

Lilah

Killian bundled me up in his shirt and jacket on the way out of the facility, a pair of loose hospital scrubs on my lower half to protect me from being seen by anyone who might be looking as we exited the building. I was barely aware of Oliver nearby, talking to the Director—who I now realized to be the man with the low and soothing voice who’d said I might never shift again.

I could feel Oliver’s eyes on me as he negotiated the terms of my release. I ignored the way he signed paperwork on my behalf as if I were property needing to be exchanged.

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